


What's in a name

by ShariDeschain



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 22:46:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18061637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShariDeschain/pseuds/ShariDeschain
Summary: The Menagerie had been the first school to teach her everything there was to know about names.





	What's in a name

Her mother used to say that there was a lot of power in a name, and it had took Inej quite a long time to understand what she had meant. The Menagerie had been the first school to teach her everything there was to know about names: how they could be used against you, how you could use them against others, how they define things, and people, and people that are things.

Amongst the Dregs she wasn’t known as the little lynx anymore, but she had other names. No one had the courage to say them to her face, of course, but Inej heard them whispered all around. They called her _Brekker’s little girl, Brekker’s new toy,_ or simply _Brekker’s bitch._ It made her angry ― not in the same way _little lynx_ made her angry, but it was somewhere close, like when the old clients of the Menagerie used to call her _Helen’s girl_. 

It was insulting to be called by someone else’s name, to be known as something that someone else’s owned. Inej had never realized how much she loved her name until she lost it and, of course, there was little to do about it now. Belonging to a Barrel thug was definitely better than belonging to a Barrel mistress, but it didn’t make her a freer person.

Still, at first, it had been confusing for her: the owner of her indenture, the one to whom she had to bow down as a sign of respect, was Per Haskell, not Kaz Brekker. Kaz was just the boss’ handyman (Inej had always assumed that was the reason everybody called him _Dirtyhands_ ) and he had, in theory, no real power over the Dregs. And yet no one called her _Per Haskell’s bitch._ In a weird way Inej felt that carrying Kaz’s namewas better, more dangerous, almost respectable in the gang’s twisted, brutal way of thinking. She still hated it with passion.

She was able to endure that kind of name-calling only because Kaz himself never called her anything else than _Inej_ , and even that had been a concession he had made only at her express request, otherwise he had seemed content enough to keep calling her _Ghafa_ in a very business-sounding voice.

And then, a few months after she joined the gang, the Dregs made their very first, real hit on the Dime Lions. It had been an ugly thing and it had cost Inej a piece of her conscience. After the mission she had prayed for hours and hours, and for the first time she had been afraid that her gods would no longer hear her. She had cried that night.

But then the sun had risen again and the word of what she had done had spread around like oil spilling from a broken lantern. And it had been Kaz’s idea ― so simple, yet so effective ― to kill Pekka Rollin’s only fjerdan speaker to sabotage their trade with the new Drüskelle ship, but it had been Inej’s knife that made its way into the Lion’s chest until it found his heart, and they all knew it.

And when, in the midst of the celebrations for the deal they had just done at the expense of the Dime Lions, Jesper had grabbed Inej by her waist and had spinned her around the room screaming _“You are, like, Brekker’s right hand!”_ , Inej had been almost pleased to know that that one would be her new moniker. Being someone’s right hand wasn’t that bad, after all. She liked it. And Kaz also seemed not too displeased either, if the hint of a creepy smile at the corner of his lips was to say anything about the whole thing.

Yes, _Brekker’s right hand_ was going to serve her well until she found a name of her own, Inej decided. And maybe, _maybe,_ even after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Writtenfor the COWT9 and [this tumblr prompt](https://unavenged-robin.tumblr.com/post/183321221318/soc-one-of-the-missions-that-gained-inej-her)


End file.
